Best in the World

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The world of darts might seem an unlikely setting for a show about achieving your potential, but by the end of Alex Elliott’s inspirational monologue Best in the World, you’ll be thinking about it. Don’t worry, it’s not a motivational lecture (although at times it veers surprisingly close). But in this small-scale yet slick production directed by Annie Rigby, Elliott makes you consider how being the best can simply mean doing the right thing at the right time, achieving excellence through years of practice – or, of course, scoring that elusive 180 on the dartboard.

Darts, he reassures us, has moved on from its old image of flabby men in beer halls, and Elliott tells the often moving stories of the men who transformed it: Jockey Wilson, Eric Bristow, Phil Taylor. But right from the start, he broadens things out to make the show relevant to all of us, and in fact the audience plays a central role. We’re provided with emergency bananas should energy levels flag, and later there’s paper aeroplane throwing, memories of our good deeds from the past and, of course, a chance to try our hand on the oche.

Elliott delivers the piece with an engaging naturalism, and we’re with him all the way in his memories of successes and failures from the past. The pace is tight and the script resonant. At times it seems a little self-indulgent, or too feelgood to be true. But by the end, we’re rooting for the audience’s amateur darts team and aware of the fact that we’re all capable of achieving success, large or small.